The Arkansas Supreme Court on Tuesday stayed the execution of eight men until March, halting the state’s attempt to resume executions in the state after a 10-year hiatus. In issuing its stay, the court overturned a ruling of a circuit judge who also stayed the execution of the eight men, saying that the judge overstepped [...]
A Kurdish lawyer in Turkey will face trial at a later date for comments he made about the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), when he said the group was not a terrorist organization but a political movement. Tahir Elci was detained on Tuesday and released later that day, but he is not permitted to leave the [...]
UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers Mónica Pinto on Monday urged officials in Guinea-Bissau to implement measures aimed at increasing residents’ access to justice throughout the nation. Pinto released the statement just days after completing her first official visit to the country last week, where she met with members of the [...]
The European Court for Human Rights dismissed the claims of three students claiming their nearly two weeks of detention without charges violated their human rights. The three students were in the UK on student visas when they were detained and have since returned to their homes in Pakistan. The students said in their complaint that [...]
Three former detainees filed a lawsuit Monday against the City of Chicago and a number of Chicago police officers for alleged abuse at an “off the books” detention center. The lawsuit alleges abuses at the Homan Center including: being denied food, water and access to a bathroom and being handcuffed in a dark room. One [...]
US Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates on Monday voiced the Obama’s administration’s support for the Sentencing Reform and Corrections Act of 2015 . The bipartisan legislation would reduce the prison sentences of some nonviolent drug offenders whose sentences have overwhelmed the criminal justice system’s correctional facilitates. Speaking to the Senate Judiciary Committee Yates said, [...]
Former Bosnian Army general Naser Oric pleaded not guilty Monday to charges of war crimes he allegedly committed against prisoners of war in 1992. Prosecutors charged Oric in August for his alleged involvement in the killing of three Bosnian Serb prisoners of war in the villages of Zalazje, Kunjerac and Lolici. Upon being charged, Oric [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin on Monday denied a request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to expand the list of types of photo identification accepted at polls in the state. Judge Lynn Adelman ruled that expanding the list to include out of state driver’s licenses, [...]
A judge for the US District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana ruled Sunday that Louisiana must continue to provide Medicaid funding to Planned Parenthood clinics for 14 days. Judge John deGravelles’s ruling, which was made public on Monday, came as a result of a recent order by Governor Bobby Jindal to block funding [...]
A three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit on Monday upheld the main parts of Connecticut and New York gun control legislation that ban semiautomatic weapons and high-capacity magazines. The laws were passed in the wake of the 2012 mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. According [...]
